Monday, April 14, 2014

The MBK Galerie. My dice, 2D and 3D, are falling from every corner of the
building. I enjoyed texturing from floor to ceiling,
inside this attractive building on a German sim. If you visit, also tour the sim.

The opening
reception for Roll of the Dice was Sunday April 13. Asmita Duranjaya arranged for
Miriam Evanier to stream traditional music from all over the world, with a
focus on India and Indonesia, because she knows I love that style. There were
also Western pieces included. Asmita at the sitar, and Miriam at the tablas,
the reception began with a performance of raga music and Indian dancing.

THE EXHIBIT

Survival is a
gamble. For many, it is a series of moves in a game of chance. On the face of
each die is a number from 1 to 6. The odds are we have a one in six chance of
hitting our desired number. The approach we take to the environment is akin to
a throw of the dice. The survival of the planet in our hands is a game.

I’ve referenced
Sally Painter’s list of the seven biggest threats to the environment for my
exhibit. There are so many others. The melting of the polar ice caps, for
instance, is not mentioned. These are seven among the ambassadors of an ailing
planet. While creating my build, I couldn’t help from noticing a correlation
with the seven deadly sins. These sins turn an indifferent eye to the planet’s
rapidly diminishing health. The largest threats to the environment are most
surely earned from our deadly sins.

In each of the
six nooks of the MBK gallery, I’ve represented one face of the die. Each roll
of the die tells a story for which we gamble. Their faces are represented as follows:

1. Human Population (Over population with resulting
depletion of resources)

2. Earth Changes (Human induced climatic changes)

3. Deforestation (Losing biodiversity)

4. Ozone depletion

5. Acid rain

6. 160 Dead Zones in the ocean

And what of the
seventh face of a six sided die? Where is that? And what is the threat related
to it? At the end of the center isle of the building, in place of an altar, is
the last die. All its faces are blank; there are no punctuated numbers on its
surface. It falls upon this last die to reflect a resultant threat:

7. Species Extinction

Is the Earth real
estate? Are its life forms, vegetation, and resources rightfully subject to our
beliefs? To what extent do we own it? The classical answer is ‘might makes
right’. We are greedily consuming resources, polluting the planet from the
oceans to the skies, from a compromised present to an endangered future. The
vast majority of humanity doesn’t recognize this emergency state, and find
little wrong with our specie’s domination of the planet. But in truth, we did
not inherit the earth, we stole it. It is not ours any more than the other
non-human inhabitants. We still haven’t learned to share. The Earth is not
ours, but the responsibility to clean it up immediately is only ours. That is
our charge. Denial is the eighth sin: that sin which escapes the traditional
list, the deadliest of all, for which there can be no die face capable of
holding a number which erases itself. This 8th nook is not represented in the
exhibit. It is something we already carry with us daily, and everywhere we go.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Paper Tower
is one of my pet builds - one of my first. Working on its grand scale and industrial motifs was
an exciting new adventure in my new exposure to 3D building. I have many fond
memories with friends, and with public events in and around the Tower. It is
one of the last standing of my newbie builds. For years it has been the symbol
of the city. In March 2010, Derek Michelson invited me to build his ACC Alpha
sim from bottom to top. After terraforming was complete, I built several
buildings, of which the arena called ACC Studio of Builds (currently named
Paper Tower Court) defined the central hub of the sim, and still does to this
day. On April 10, 2010, the Paper Tower was erected over the ACC Studio of
Builds, and has remained there ever since. It’s witnessed public events,
personal meetings with friends, and even had a jungle which sprawled to two
floors in its midsection. The inside walls of the Tower’s shaft was textured
with an exhibit that visitors could see as they climbed the spiral staircase
rising the whole height of the Tower. Translucent panels around the artwork
allowed visitor walking up or down the staircase to see the views of the city
below. This was my newbie pride and joy.

Recent photos of the Paper Tower rising above ACC Alpha
have been installed this evening at the Looking Glass Hall
at the museum right below the Tower. I wanted to create this exhibit while the
Paper Tower still stands.

Because I have a
strong emotional attachment to the Paper Tower, it took me about two years to
finalize the decision to take it into inventory. It’s simply too high.
Theoretically, tall structures give great views over a city, but the default
position of the avatar’s camera sees only sky after a certain altitude. In
order to see the city as you walk in a high structure, the platform on which
you walk must not exceed mid height. My hope is that the translucent floor of
the new Paper Observatory will cater to this default.

The Paper Tower
will not disappear entirely. I have preserved a couple of its parts in the new
Observatory. Most notably, the dual themes of decomposition, and paper, remain.
The Observatory in every respect is the offspring of the Tower, even hovering
in the airspace above the Paper Tower Court. It will take over the focal point
of the sim and be a place of exhibitions. But instead of art displays, scientific
information will fill the Observatory.

With the Carnival
of Architecture less than a week away, I have to concentrate on the positive
aspects of the new change, and realize that the sadness I feel at losing the
Tower from the sim is the expense due for the regeneration of the sim. As I prepare the Tower for packing, most of the furnishings and plants have been removed already. It's spiral staircase (122 meters high) still takes you on a dizzy walk up to observation deck at 155 meters over the city. The top of the Tower is at 175 meters . Please
see the previous post for the date, time, and place of the ceremony. The Paper
Tower will already be safely stored in inventory before the festivities begin,
so I will pack away my grim face too. I can guarantee one thing, the carnival
will be interactive and a lot of fun. This is how I want to issue in the new
build.